Silkie Breeders, what does your cull/keeper list look like?

[Gilded Feather]

I’m a newbie too with only 2 year in so far. I don’t show and only have played a little bit with breeding. As im still learning A few things that have really helped me is 1) get a copy of the ABA or APA standard and study the first 30 pages, silkie SOP, and the description of the variety you want to start with. 2) join the American Silkie Bantam Club lots of information on breeding and showing, study pictures of birds that have actually won at sponsored events will help give you an eye for what your looking at when comparing what you read in the SOP. And get you familiar with the names of the serious silkie people 3) be very careful with the information you find on social media like Facebook a lot of misinformation being regurgitated. I like the group silkies pure and simple 4) if someone tries to sell you show quality eggs or chicks run any respectable breeder knows there is no such thing, they are hatching out hundreds of eggs to get a couple worthy of the show cage. Instead they should talk about their show experience, what faults in their birds they are working on and what attributes their birds have in order to help you figure out if their lines are going to work towards your goals.
Remember there are no perfect birds every bird has something that needs to be improved on for the next generation but knowing how to spot that and learning how to fix it will give you a big leg up. Most breeder birds wouldn’t do well at a show but mated correctly could produce a show bird.

Thank you for the great advice! And the great FB group to join.
But I will definitely keep trying to get my hands on a copy of the silkie sop. Every time I try, they’re sold out unfortunately.